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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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http://www.archive.org/details/monroedoctrineinOOmacc 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

IN ITS RELATION TO THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI 



est 
en 



THE 
MONROE DOCTRINE 

IN ITS RELATION TO THE 
REPUBLIC OF HAITI 

By 

WILLIAM A. MacCORKLE, LL.D. 

Former Governor of West Virginia 
Author of " Some Southern Questions," Etc., Etc. 




NEW YORK 

THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1915 



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Copyright, 19 14. by 
The Neale Publishing Company 



JUL 28 1915 v 

©CI.A406873 















„ 



Inscribed to My Friend, 

General Edward P. Meany, 

of Alnwick Hall 



PREFACE 

With the construction of the Panama Canal and 
the consequent change of commercial lines the im- 
portance of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of 
Mexico to the United States is enormously en- 
hanced. With this change of commercial lines the 
Island of Haiti and San Domingo, in the Carib- 
bean Sea, has become of supreme importance to 
the United States. 

This book is in no sense of the word a study or 
a philosophical treatise. It is simply a statement 
of the present situation of the Republic of Haiti 
and our relation to it under the Monroe Doctrine, 
a statement that is made for the purpose of giv- 
ing our people some information as to this little 
known but most important and strategic island. 
The general substance of this little book is con- 
tained in an address delivered at Philadelphia, 
April 3, 19 14, before the American Academy of 
Political and Social Science. Since that time the 
chronically bad status of the Republic of Haiti has 
become very much more acute, and to-day is caus- 

5 



6 PREFACE 

ing but little less anxiety to our government than 
does the Republic of Mexico. 

I have included in this volume Washington's 
Address, President Monroe's message, and the 
later interpretation of that instrument, in order 
that the reader, as he studies the situation, may 
have the foundation of the Doctrine with him and 
may be able more accurately to decide as to the 
soundness of the conclusions herein drawn. 

Charleston, West Virginia. 
July I, 19 14. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface 5 

CHAPTEB 

I. Foundation of the Monroe Doctrine . 1 1 

II. The Monroe Doctrine 15 

III. The Function of the Doctrine . . 19 

IV. Haiti's Relation to, Our Government . 24 
V. Strategic Importance of Haiti . . .31 

VI. Haiti's Government Policy and Reli- 
gious Ideals 40 

VII. Moral Conditions in Haiti .... 62 

VIII. Object of the Monroe Doctrine . . 75 

IX. Application of the Monroe Doctrine. 82 

X. The Menace of Haiti 91 

XI. The Enforcement of the Monroe Doc- 
trine 97 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 



I 



FOUNDATION OF THE MONROE DOC- 
TRINE 

By many, Washington's farewell address is 
considered the germ of the Monroe Doctrine. 
One view, however, shows this judgment to be 
not technically correct. While President Wash- 
ington made plain that we should have as little 
political connection as possible with foreign na- 
tions and that our isolated position was our pro- 
tection, he had in mind the question of alliances 
with the European governments. He had just 
gone through the annoyances that sprang from 
complications arising from our sentimental feeling 
toward one of those governments. While this 
was true, he emphasized our isolated position and 
the importance of maintaining that position. He 
did not have his attention directed to the question 
of European intervention so much as to the dan- 

ii 



12 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

gers of the permanent alliance that we might make 
with a European country. This isolation, when 
carried to its fruition, is the practical foundation 
of the Monroe Doctrine. 



Washington's farewell address 

"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I con- 
jure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a 
free people ought to be awake, since history and experience 
prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful 
foes of republican government. . . . 

"The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign 
nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have 
with them as little connection as possible. So far as we 
have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled 
with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 

"Europe has a set of primary interests which to us 
have none or a very remote relation. Hence she must be 
engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are 
essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it 
must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial 
ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordi- 
nary combinations and collisions of her friendships or 
enmities. 

"Our detached and distant situation invites and en- 
ables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one 
people, under an efficient government, the period is not 
far off when we may defy material injury from external 
annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 13 

cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to 
be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, un- 
der the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will 
not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we 
may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, 
shall counsel. 

"Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? 
Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, 
by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of 
Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of 
European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice? 

"It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alli- 
ances with any portion of the foreign world, so far, I 
mean, as we are not at liberty to do it ; for let me not be 
understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to exist- 
ing engagement. I hold the maxim no less applicable to 
public than to private affairs that honesty is always the 
best policy. I repeat, therefore, let those engagements be 
observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion it is 
unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them." 

In 1822 Austria, Russia, and Prussia formed 
the Holy Alliance, which made the following dec- 
laration : 

"The high contracting parties, well convinced that the 
system of representative government is as incompatible 
with the monarchical principle as the maxim of the sover- 
eignty of the people is opposed to the principle of divine 
right, engage in the most solemn manner to employ all 
their means and unite all their efforts to put an end to 



14 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

the system of representative government wherever it is 
known to exist in the states of Europe and to prevent it 
from being introduced into those states where it is not 
known." 

While this declaration referred to the states of 
Europe, its important effect would be upon the 
countries of this hemisphere; and the King of 
Spain directly demanded support from the sov- 
ereigns of the Holy Alliance to maintain the prin- 
ciples of the Holy Alliance on this hemisphere. 
In 1823, therefore, President Monroe, after care- 
ful conference with the two great living revolu- 
tionary statesmen, formulated the message that 
has become a fundamental principle of our govern- 
ment in its dealings with the foreign governments 
of the world. 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 15 

II 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

"In the discussions to which this interest has given rise 
and in the arrangements by which they may terminate, 
the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a 
principle in which the rights and interests of the United 
States are involved, that the American continents, by the 
free and independent condition which they have assumed 
and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as 
subjects for future colonization by any European 
powers. . . . 

"The political system of the allied powers is essen- 
tially different in this respect from that of America. This 
difference proceeds from that which exists in their re- 
spective Governments; and to the defense of our own, 
which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and 
treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most en- 
lightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed un- 
exampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe 
it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations ex- 
isting between the United States and those powers to 
declare that we should consider any attempt on their part 
to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as 
dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing 
colonies or dependencies of any European power we have 
not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Gov- 



1 6 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

ernments who have declared their independence, and 
maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great 
consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we 
could not view any interposition for the purpose of op- 
pressing them, or controlling in any other manner their 
destiny, by any European power, in any other light than 
as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward 
the United States. . . . 

"Our policy in regard to Europe — which was adopted 
at an early stage of the wars that have so long agitated 
that quarter of the globe — nevertheless remains the same, 
which is: not to interfere in the internal concerns of any 
of its powers; to consider the government de facto as the 
legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly rela- 
tions with it, and to preserve these relations by a frank, 
firm, and manly policy, meeting in all instances the just 
claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none. 
But in regard to those continents circumstances are emi- 
nently and conspicuously different. It is impossible that 
the allied powers should extend their political system to 
any portion of either continent without endangering our 
peace and happiness; nor can any one believe that our 
Southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of 
their own accord." 

president Roosevelt's interpretation of the 
monroe doctrine 

"We must recognize the fact that in some South 
American countries there has been much suspicion lest we 
should interpret the Monroe Doctrine as in some way 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 17 

inimical to their interests, and we must try to convince 
all the other nations of the continent — once and for all — 
that no just and orderly government has anything to fear 
from us. 

"There are certain republics to the south of us which 
have already reached such a point of stability, order, and 
prosperity, that they themselves, though as yet hardly 
consciously, are among the guarantors of this Doctrine. 
These republics we now meet not only on a basis of entire 
equality, but in a spirit of frank and respectful friendship, 
which we hope is mutual. If all the republics to the 
south of us will not only grow as those to which I allude 
have already grown, all need for us to be the especial 
champions of the Doctrine will disappear; for no stable 
and growing American republic wishes to see some great 
non-American military power acquire territory in its 
neighborhood. All that this country desires is that the , 
other republics on the continent shall be happy and pros- i 
perous; and they cannot be happy and prosperous unless ) 
they maintain order within their boundaries and behave^ 7 
with a just regard for their obligations toward outsiders. 

"It must be understood that under no circumstances 
will the United States use the Monroe Doctrine as a 
cloak for territorial aggression. We desire peace with 
all the world, but perhaps most of all with the other 
peoples of the American continent. There are of course 
limits to the wrongs which any self-respecting nation can 
endure. It is always possible that wrong actions toward 
this nation, or toward citizens of this nation, in some 
state unable to keep order among its own people, unable 
to secure justice from outsiders, and unwilling to do jus- 
tice to those outsiders who treat it well, may result in 



1 8 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

our having to take action to protect our rights; but such 
action will not be taken with a view to territorial ag- 
gression, and it will be taken at all only with extreme re- 
luctance and when it has become evident that every other 
resource has been exhausted. 

THE LODGE RESOLUTION 

"Resolved, That when any harbor or other place in the 
American continents is so situated that the occupation 
thereof for naval or military purposes might threaten the 
communications or the safety of the United States, the 
Government of the United States could not see, without 
grave concern, the possession of such harbor or other place 
by any corporation or association which has such a rela- 
tion to another Government, not American, as to give that 
Government practical power of control for national pur- 
poses." 

The Lodge Resolution was not approved by the 
President, but it was passed by an overwhelming 
vote, which showed the sentiment of the American 
people as to its provisions; and it is accepted as 
the Doctrine of the United States founded upon 
the preservation of the safety of our country. 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 19 



III 
THE FUNCTION OF THE DOCTRINE 

That the Monroe Doctrine made its apparent 
advent in the history of nations so late as the 
time of the President whose name it bears has, to 
a certain extent, diminished its importance as a 
part of the fundamental and international life in 
the thought of the nations of the world. While 
this doctrine did not form part of the written law 
of this country, still it originated in the very life 
of the American Republic, and is not, as a matter 
of truth, the doctrine of President Monroe but 
rather the doctrine that was part of the actual life 
of this republic in its inception. It was enunciated 
as a foundation proposition of our government by 
Washington, was interpreted and insisted upon as 
part of our fundamental life by Jefferson, and 
finally, upon the historic occasion, established as 
the Monroe Doctrine. 

Writers are fond of frequently repeating the 
statement that the Monroe Doctrine is not part of 
the international code, but that it is merely a pol- 



20 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

icy of this government and only so understood in 
the law of nations. While this may be the thought 
among other nations, the Monroe Doctrine is as 
absolutely part of the life of this republic, in its 
dealings with the nations of the world, as any 
doctrine of international law expressed and pub- 
lished as such by the nations of the world. It is 
fundamentally the Doctrine of the greatest and 
most powerful nation on earth, and so understood 
to be a primary doctrine by the hundred millions 
of people forming the great western republic. If 
it is not technically part of the code of interna- 
tional law, it is the belief of our people that it 
forms an essential part of the structure of our na- 
tional life. Secretary Foster stated: 

"It has been said that the Monroe Doctrine has no 
binding authority; first, because it has not been admitted 
into the code of international law; and, second, because it 
has never been adopted or declared by Congress. In reply, 
it may be said that the principle which underlies the Mon- 
roe Doctrine — the right of self-defense, the preservation 
of the peace and safety of the nation — is recognized as 
an elementary part of international law. ... It stands 
to-day as a cardinal policy of our government." 

While this doctrine may be a policy and not a 
part of the technical code of international law, it 
has for one hundred years held the hands of the 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 21 

mightiest nations on earth, nations that have rec- 
ognized its potency equally with the recognition 
which they have extended to any principle of inter- 
national law. The law of self-preservation is the 
most fundamental and absolute of all the laws of 
nations. The Monroe Doctrine is the one vital 
doctrine, which in our intercourse with other na- 
tions most vitally controls u our peace and happi- 
ness" and "our peace and safety." It is idle for 
any authority to contend that a principle so vital 
as this does not have the real potency and effect of 
international law. Throughout the discussions by 
the fathers and by those who latterly placed the 
doctrine in active effect, the one continuing thread 
runs, that underlying this doctrine are "the peace 
and safety" and "the peace and happiness" of the 
American nation. 

This doctrine was at first, in one sense of the 
word, a negative proposition. Its primal idea was 
non-action on the part of the United States, unless 
foreign governments attempted to extend their 
system to any portion of this hemisphere. With 
the life of the world it has changed, not in its 
fundamental idea, for it is founded upon the 
preservation of the safety and peace of this repub- 
lic, but to a certain extent the change has come 
with the altered condition of the times and the 



22 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

surroundings of the life of this hemisphere. Time 
has made it an affirmative doctrine on our part, a 
doctrine that will, in a way, compel action on the 
part of our government, even before direct inter- 
ference with our hemisphere by foreign govern- 
ments has come about. The peace and safety of 
the republic, which was the underlying idea of the 
Monroe Doctrine, will demand that this country 
must affirmatively protect itself against the condi- 
tion brought about by the governments of our 
hemisphere. In other words, with the change of 
circumstances and the surroundings of our life 
this doctrine has in a way taken the form that will 
compel action on our part to prevent a condition 
which is ultimately liable to bring about interfer- 
ence with our peace and safety. 

In this discussion we found our argument upon 
the Monroe Doctrine, both in its original and its 
later construction. We believe, as a cardinal 
principle of its application, that independence is 
fundamental. To differ with another country in 
its ideas of government will form no reason why 
we should deprive that country of its govern- 
mental life and existence. We concede that be- 
cause of the difference in thought, as to govern- 
mental policy, we should not interfere with any 
government nor establish over any government a 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 23 

suzerainty or control. We do not contend that the 
Monroe Doctrine applies to a country, unless the 
acts of that country interfere with the doctrine in 
our interpretation of its principles as to control by 
European nations, or unless it interferes with the 
preservation of our peace and safety, or unless it 
commits a breach of international law. 



24 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 



IV 



HAITI'S RELATION TO OUR GOVERN- 
MENT 

The question of the condition of the Republic 
of Haiti is one so urgent, is, indeed, a question 
that so earnestly demands that the people of our 
country should possess the fullest information as 
to its condition, that no apologies are needed for 
a discussion of the Monroe Doctrine as it applies 
to this important strategic island lying practically 
at our door and commanding the greatest avenues 
of our commerce. 

Next to Mexico this island republic is fraught 
with the greatest importance to the United States 
in our relation to the Southern and Central Amer- 
ican republics, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Carib- 
bean Sea. Let us then, as briefly as possible, dis- 
cuss the conditions obtaining in Haiti and gain an 
idea of its important relation to our government. 

The island of Hispaniola, containing Haiti and 
San Domingo, includes about 28,250 square 
miles, of which 10,200 square miles are com- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 25 

prised in the Republic of Haiti. The island is 
about the size of the combined States of Dela- 
ware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hamp- 
shire, and Rhode Island. Next to Cuba, it is the 
most important strategical point in the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It is directly on 
and commands the two great passages of the At- 
lantic Ocean into the Caribbean Sea from the east- 
ern coast of the United States to and from the 
Panama Canal. It thus practically controls the 
great bulk of the commerce of the United States 
to the East and the Pacific Ocean. 

This island has within its shores more natural 
wealth than has any other territory of similar size 
in the world. By reason of its rich valleys and 
splendid mountains it has every temperature 
known to man. All tropical plants and trees, as 
well as the vegetables and fruits of the temperate 
climes, grow there in perfection. The best coffee 
known to commerce grows wild, without planting 
or cultivation. Sugar cane, indigo, bread fruit, 
melons, mangoes, oranges, apples, grapes, mul- 
berries, and figs all grow with little labor or care. 
Mahogany, manchineel, satinwood, rosewood, cin- 
namon-wood, logwood, the pine, the oak, the cy- 
press, and the palmetto grow in rich profusion in 
its splendid soil. Here are the best dyestuffs 



26 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

known to commerce, and in the earth are silver, 
gold, copper, lead, iron, gypsum, and sulphur. 
We hazard the statement that this island is more 
capable of supporting life in all its phases, more 
able to create wealth and diffuse happiness to its 
people, than any other land of its size on the face 
of the earth. Its harbors are incomparable, and 
will float the navies of the world. Its atmosphere 
is salubrious and its climate healthy. It is a nat- 
ural paradise, and the description of its beauty 
and resources by Columbus is as true to-day as it 
was more than four hundred years ago. He 
wrote : 

"In it there are many havens on the seacoast, incom- 
parable with any others I know in Christendom, and 
plenty of rivers, so good and great that it is a marvel. 
The lands there are high, and in it are very many ranges 
of hills and most lofty mountains incomparably beyond 
the Island of Centrefei (or Teneriffe) ; all most beautiful 
in a thousand shapes and all accessible, and full of trees of 
a thousand kinds, so lofty that they seem to reach the sky. 
And I am assured that they never lose their foliage, as 
may be imagined, since I saw them, as green and as 
beautiful as they are in Spain in May and some of them 
were in flower, some in fruit, some in another stage, ac- 
cording to their kind. And the nightingale was singing, 
and other birds of a thousand sorts, in the month of No- 
vember, round about the way I was going. There are 
palm trees of six or eight species, wondrous to see for 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 27 

their beautiful variety; but so are the other trees and 
fruits and plants therein. There are wonderful pine 
groves and very large plants of verdure, and there are 
honey and many kinds of birds, and many mines in the 
earth; and there is a population of incalculable number. 
Espanola is a marvel ; the mountains and hills, and plains, 
and fields, and the soil, so beautiful and rich for planting 
and sowing, for breeding cattle of all sorts, for building 
of towns and villages. There could be no believing, with- 
out seeing, such harbors as are here, as well as the many 
and great rivers and excellent waters, most of which con- 
tain gold. In the trees and fruits and plants, there are 
greater diversities from those of Juana (Cuba). In this 
there are many spiceries and great mines of gold and 
other metals. The people of this island and all others 
that I have seen, or not seen, all go naked, men and 
women, just as their mothers bring them forth." 

The seas that are to-day, actually and prospec- 
tively, most important to mankind are the Med- 
iterranean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Car- 
ibbean Sea. In their importance these seas have 
waxed and waned as have all other lands and seas 
of the globe. While the Mediterranean has been 
important throughout history as a part of the 
chain of communication to the East, it is probably 
at the present time more vital than ever, for it 
commands the Suez Canal and is virtually a part 
of the Suez route. The two great twin seas, the 
Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, are, if 



28 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

possible, more important than the Mediterranean 
in their effect upon the commerce of the world. 
From their position they will be more world-wide 
in their direct influence upon commerce than the 
Mediterranean, because these two seas will em- 
brace a greater part of the world. 

It should be a fundamental principle of the 
v United States that we should control the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. This control 
should be absolute and exclusive. The ultimate 
realization of this postulate may be far in the fu- 
ture, but the principle should be carried out as 
persistently as Russia and Germany have pursued 
the thought of an open sea. While the ultimate 
thought of our country is toward peace, still the 
developing world-conditions compel us to prepare 
for the dominance of the seas that are absolutely 
necessary to our future security. The control of 
these great seas, which cut our shore line in twain 
and which control our greatest river and the heart 
of our greatest population, is as essential to the 
peace and safety of this country as is the control 
of the British Channel or the Red Sea to Great 
Britain, or that of the Adriatic to Austria and 
Italy. 

The peace and safety of our country further 
demand that the countries bordering on the Car- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 29 

ibbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico should not be 
able by whim, self-interest, or lawlessness, to in- 
terfere with this nation. The conditions sur- 
rounding this country demand that our spheres of 
influence on this continent should be as absolutely 
delimited and settled as is the establishment of 
that principle in Europe. While it is possible 
easily to settle this principle, it should be done; 
and as rapidly as is consistent with justice and 
right the bringing about of the situation that will 
absolutely secure our control of these great seas 
should be inaugurated. 

The events of the day show how causelessly a 
great war may arise and of what deadly impor- 
tance to a great nation may be a small island or 
an obscure country. The construction of the 
Canal has emphasized our duty along the lines of 
this basic idea, and this principle has been practi- 
cally made part of our treaty obligations in an 
agreement for the preservation of order in the 
Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the sur- 
rounding and adjacent countries. 

In the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty we contract that 
"The canal shall be free and open to the vessels 
of commerce and of war of all nations observing 
these rules"; and we further agree that "The 
canal shall never be blockaded, nor shall any right 



3 o THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

of war be exercised nor any act of hostility be 
committed within it. The United States, how- 
ever, shall be at liberty to maintain such military 
police along the canal as may be necessary to pro- 
tect it against lawlessness and disorder." 

It is idle to believe that these solemn and im- 
portant obligations can be brought to fruition 
while the condition of the Gulf of Mexico and the 
Caribbean Sea remains as it is to-day and while 
the present status of irresponsibility controls 
these seas. These seas and islands and the lands 
bordering on them are a part of the Panama Zone 
and while their ability to cast this important ocean 
of the Western Hemisphere into political, social, 
and mercantile chaos remains, our solemn guar- 
antees and treaties to preserve the canal are but 
as waste paper. The control of the Panama Canal 
makes the United States a trustee for civilization, 
and to carry out our treaties it is necessary that 
we dominate these seas; and we should be able 
by fair treaty, or by fairly granted rights, to pre- 
serve the peace and safety of that portion of this 
continent. 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 31 



STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF HAITI 

It is necessary to our subject briefly to discuss 
the location of Haiti, not only as to its trade posi- 
tion but as to its strategical situation. In the Gulf 
of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea there are five 
great strategical positions : the mouth of the Ca- 
nal, the mouth of the Mississippi, Cuba, Haiti, 
and Jamaica. The mouth of the Mississippi nec- 
essarily will command the great central valley of 
the United States, and here will be one of the 
great positions in the trade of the world. From 
the mouth of the Mississippi to Colon our com- 
merce will have a straight course, passing Cape 
Catoche, the outermost point of Yucatan, and 
Cape Gracias a Dios on the Mosquito Coast. 
This route will pass the island of Mujeres, which 
is not important, but will be within easy striking 
distance of the great island of Jamaica, owned by 
Great Britain. 

The island of Cuba is the great controlling 
strategical influence in the Caribbean Sea and the 



32 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

Gulf of Mexico. It lies across the route from 
North America, and largely commands the route 
from the mouth of the Mississippi to the eastern 
opening of the Canal. It controls the passage 
from the Gulf of Mexico into the Caribbean Sea 
through the Yucatan Channel, and into the Gulf 
of Mexico from the Atlantic by the Florida straits. 

Second to Cuba in strategical importance is the 
Island of Haiti and San Domingo. 

The two great routes from North America to 
the mouth of the Canal are : first, the route by 
the Windward Passage, between the Island of 
Cuba and the Island of Haiti; second, the route 
by the Mona Passage, between the Island of Haiti 
and the Island of Puerto Rico. This latter pas- 
sage will be chiefly used by the sailing vessels go- 
ing to and from the Canal to the eastern portion 
of North America. Every ship sailing from New 
York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Canada, Balti- 
more, Newport News, in short, from the east- 
ern coast of North America, on their journeys to 
the infinite world of commerce will be compelled 
to pass by the Island of Haiti, either through the 
Windward Passage or the Mona Passage, and all 
vessels to Great Britain and the northern part of 
Europe must use the" Mona Passage by the east- 
ern coast of Haiti. 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 33 

The other important passage to the mouth of 
the Canal is the Anegada Passage by the Island 
of Saint Thomas and Puerto Rico, within easy 
striking distance of Haiti. This will be the route 
used from the Isthmus to the Mediterranean and 
Central Europe. Concisely speaking, the world 
of commerce to and from the Canal will pass 
along one coast or the other of the Island of 
Haiti and San Domingo, or within easy striking 
distance of its shores. 

This world-wide commerce, in case of stress 
and storm on its voyage to the commercial world, 
must utilize this great island in the necessities of 
sea life; for Haiti is the first great harboring 
place on the way to the Canal, and on the return 
it is the last stopping place. It will be as neces- 
sary to the commerce of this country as Malta or 
Aden or Gibraltar are to the Suez route. It lies 
athwart the greatest commerce that will cleave the 
seas. 

In the present governmental condition of Haiti, 
and with its relation to this country, the island of 
Jamaica will be supremely important from a 
strategical standpoint, if controlled or held by an 
unfriendly power, and it could cripple our com- 
merce passing through the Windward, Anegada, 
or the Mona Passage. With the friendly influ- 



34 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

ence of Cuba and Haiti the commerce of the 
United States would have a tremendous advantage 
in case of war, or in the event of unfriendliness 
on the part of any nation, even if Jamaica were 
held by an unfriendly power. 

It is usual to speak of the Caribbean Sea and 
the Gulf of Mexico as the American Seas, and to 
consider them as part of our life and practically 
within the control of this nation. It is necessary 
that we should glance at these great seas and ap- 
preciate how they and the Canal are hemmed in 
by islands, which would become a menace to our 
commerce in case of war or hostility on the part 
of the nations of Europe. 

First in importance is the island of Jamaica, 
owned by Great Britain, which is practically at 
the mouth of the Canal. Of almost equal impor- 
tance is the island of Curagao, belonging to Hol- 
land, which, in the hands of an unfriendly power, 
would be disastrous in its effect upon the com- 
merce of the Canal. To the east and within strik- 
ing distance are Martinique, in the hands of 
France; Santa Lucia, owned by England; St. 
Thomas, owned by Denmark; the Bahamas and 
the Bermudas, in the hands of England, and Cuba 
and Haiti, in independent control, neither of 
which last two could be utilized by the United 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 35 

States in case of conflict with the other nations of 
the world. Thus we see that the Gulf of Mex- 
ico and the Caribbean Sea are encompassed by 
islands in the control of the two great nations of 
the world, France and England, and by two 
great islands, Haiti and Cuba, which are stra- 
tegically so situated that they could largely con- 
trol the commerce of practically half of the world. 
In these waters the United States, to which this 
commerce is supremely vital, controls with the ex- 
ception of the harbor of Guantanamo in Cuba 
only the relatively insignificant island of Puerto 
Rico. Beyond these unimportant exceptions, the 
United States has no right to fortify any of the 
islands, nor could this country use them as bases 
from which to protect our commerce and our 
rights in the Canal. 

From the present unrest in Europe, great even- 
tualities, which will especially affect the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, will surely arise. 
Here must be the vital center of the life of the 
government of the United States. The greatly 
coveted, sparsely settled, rich, undeveloped and 
weakly governed portions of the earth are South 
America and Central America. In the Caribbean 
Sea is the Canal, the key to the world's commerce 
for our country, and the connecting link between 



36 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

our eastern and western shores. The control of 
this sea by our government is as fundamental and 
as inexorable as the preservation of the rights of 
the States, or of our form of free government. 
To-day, because of present conditions, our country 
has in that important region the advantage mili- 
J tary and commercial. With the advent of new 
forces our access to the Canal may be destroyed 
and the control of that vital seat of commerce 
may fall into the hands of a combination of na- 
tions opposed to the interests of the United 
States. The present situation of rest in the Carib- 
bean Sea can no longer continue. To think that 
it will is folly. 

In case of German supremacy in the great con- 
test of which the first declaration has just been 
heard, the colonial dependencies of France will 
J surely fall into German hands, and the strategic 
islands of the Caribbean Sea will be held by the 
most earth hungering of the nations of Europe. 
If, in the complications of the inevitable war, Eng- 
land is successful, it will mean with her a new era, 
and it will do away with the old condition of rest 
and quiet which has surrounded her West Indian 
dependencies. 

Under the present conditions an alliance of two 
European nations can close the mouth of the Ca- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 37 

nal, and can practically dominate the Caribbean 
Sea. ( In the opinion of thoughtful men the great 
vital and living proposition for us is that the 
United States should control, militarily and com- 
mercially, the Caribbean Sea and the access to the 
Panama Canal. J Every step in that direction is 
one of wisdom and demanded by the most primary 
considerations of commercial and military neces- 
sity. 

With the change brought about by the present 
conditions in Europe considerations of commer- 
cial and military policy will surely demand that 
the European nations will fortify their dependen- 
cies in the Caribbean Sea, and the most fundamen- 
tal considerations of safety demand that we shall 
take every step looking to the finality which will 
give to this government as complete control of mil- 
itary and commercial conditions in the Caribbean 
Sea as can be wrought by energy and foresight. 

The Canal, closely held in our hands, will be 
a source of incalculable strength. Dominated by 
a European nation, or an alliance of European 
nations, it will be to us commercial and military 
destruction. We believe that this statement is 
fundamental. 

Let us consider the governmental and social 
condition of the Republic of Haiti, so importantly 



A 



38 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

located as it is, and the probability of its becom- 
ing a menace to the fundamental principles of the 
Monroe Doctrine. It is important for us to see 
if it offends against the peace and safety of this 
country. No one cares to indict a whole people; 
but the question of the future of this island in its 
relations to this republic is one of deep and abid- 
ing importance to Americans. 

This island is practically part of the shore line 
of our republic, and is in control of the avenues of 
our greatest routes of commerce to the world, and 
lies at the mouth of the Canal, which has cost us 
untold sums of money. Through its great pas- 
sages will flow the bulk of our commerce to the 
East, and a question for consideration for the 
American people is whether or not this com- 
merce should oftentimes be placed in the control 
of a government continuously engaged in inter- 
necine war, revolution, and insurrection and sunk 
in religious and governmental degeneracy. It is 
vital to the United States to determine whether 
the condition of this island, so important to us, 
will ultimately lead to interference on the part of 
European nations or compel us, in order to pre- 
serve the peace and safety of our country, to pro- 
vide, by some means, that its present condition be 
changed, and that instead of being a menace to 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 39 

our republic it may become a blessing to the world 
and a protection to a commerce that will be the 
greatest witnessed since the keels of mankind's 
ships began to cleave the water in their quest for 
knowledge and riches throughout the world. 



M6ft fa 



4 o THE MONROE DOCTRINE 



VI 



HAITI'S GOVERNMENTAL POLICY AND 
RELIGIOUS IDEALS 

Let us, as briefly as may be, give the condition 
of this island as set out by those who have visited 
its shores and who are conversant with its condi- 
tions. That which shows the real life of a nation 
is its governmental policy and its religious ideals. 
To these two propositions I invite your attention. 

A short discussion of the history of the island 
is necessary to explain the underlying reasons for 
its economic and governmental conditions. 

At the time that Hispaniola was discovered by 
Columbus, in 1492, it was inhabited by two^ mil- 
lion natives. By reason of the rapacity and cruelty 
of the Spaniards the natives were soon extermi- 
nated, and as early as 15 12 slaves were imported 
from Africa. The descendants of those slaves 
now control the Republic of Haiti. 

Sugar, which was introduced into the island in 
1506, soon began to be the great staple. In 1650 
the buccaneers became formidable, and in 1697 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 41 

the part of the island controlled by them was 
ceded to France. 

At the time of the French Revolution the popu- 
lation was composed of relatively few whites, the 
ruling class, some mulattoes, and a vast majority 
of negro slaves. Under the control of the French, 
Haiti became the seat of a luxury almost unparal- 
leled, and furnished an enormous commerce to the 
civilized world. 

The mulattoes demanded civil rights, and with 
the wave of freedom and liberty that broke over 
France, they were in 1791 granted the privileges 
of French citizenship by the National Convention. 
The whites demanded that the decree be revoked, 
which was done; but in 1791 the slaves engaged in 
an insurrection in which they were assisted by the 
mulattoes. In 1793 the French abolished slavery. 
This, however, had no effect upon the situation. 

During the war with England, which occurred 
at this time, the slaves had rendered great as- 
sistance to the French in defeating the English. 
In 1 80 1 Toussaint L'Ouverture, a negro, obtained 
military control, and proclaimed a constitutional 
government. He was deceived by General Le- 
clerc, the brother-in-law of Bonaparte, and was 
taken to France, where he died. * p"'* ^ 

This again brought on an insurrection by the 



42 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

negroes; and under Jean Jacques Dessalines they 
renewed the conflict in its most horrible forms. 
In 1803 the French abandoned the island. Des- 
salines massacred all the whites, promulgated the 
Declaration of Independence in 1804, and, after 
he had proclaimed himself emperor in 1806, was 
assassinated. 

After this came the dreadful contest between 
Christophe and Petion for the control of the 
whole island, and the horrible conflicts between 
Haiti and San Domingo continued, with varying 
success. In 1844 the Spanish portion of the 
island asserted its independence of Haiti, and the 
Republic of San Domingo was established. Since 
that time the two political divisions of the island 
have continued. 

Then followed succession after succession of 
negro presidents and fierce dictators, but all under 
the theory and practice of complete control of the 
government and property by the negro. 

Here is the distinguishing difference between 
San Domingo and Haiti, which is not generally 
understood. 

The great development of the French portion 
of the island, which at the time of the French 
Revolution was supplying half of Europe with 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 43 

sugar, coffee, and indigo, had demanded an enor- 
mous proportion of slave population to carry on 
this work, and this majority of the slave popula- 
tion, after the weakening of the French influence 
and the evacuation of the island by that nation, 
was able absolutely to control, the island and to 
direct its destiny. The whites and the mulattoes, 
wherever found, were ruthlessly massacred by the 
negro and their influence was practically de- 
stroyed. ^ 

In San Domingo there had been no such de- 
mand for slave labor, and the whites and the mu- 
lattoes held political and economical supremacy. 
These two classes have largely maintained them- 
selves in that portion of the island. 

The situation was totally different in Haiti. 
From the first slave insurrection until to-day the 
supreme effort of the large negro population has 
been to annihilate the mulattoes and the whites, 
and the mulattoes are now a small and unimpor- 
tant part of the population of Haiti. The mu- 
lattoes' political power has gone along with their 
prestige, while that of the whites, as a political 
factor, has been destroyed by law, and only a few, 
by special permit, are engaged in trade and agri- 
culture and in operating a few concessions in the 
island. 



44 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

Under the rule of Boyer, the negro republic 
controlled San Domingo and showed the same 
fear and detestation of everything white or Euro- 
pean that had appeared in Haiti. The steady fear 
of the Haitians of everything European led them 
to destroy the lives of the mulattoes and the white 
men wherever they were found, and in addition 
they destroyed the culture, laws, and works of 
the men who had made the island of Haiti at the 
time of the French Revolution the richest posses- 
sion, excepting Java, on the globe. 

This continuing fear of all that was white and 
civilized reached its supreme illustration in the 
building by the tyrant, Christophe, of the enor- 
mous fortress at La Ferriere. There, on the top 
of a lonely mountain, miles away from any town 
or city, at the cost of thirty thousand lives and 
fifteen millions of dollars, this monster in human 
form constructed one of the most stupendous for- 
tresses ever reared by human hands. His object 
in doing this was to protect himself against the 
white man, who, he feared, would surely come and 
replace the black's barbarous methods with the 
rule of civilization. It stands there to-day with 
giant walls one hundred feet high, filled with four 
hundred cannons, its broken walls and roofless 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 45 

towers attesting to the system which, under negro 
rule, has destroyed this beautiful island. 

Since the evacuation by the French, Haiti has 
been a land of revolution, despotism, and crime 
against religious authority and governmental law. 
With the forms of a free government, it has been 
a despotism unrivaled in its disregard for human 
rights. A general of a department, with a ragged 
army of banditti behind him, who by blood and 
rapine seizes control of the government, often 
without the pretense of the forms of an election, 
has generally furnished the horrid phantasmago- 
ria which, since the French evacuation, has posed 
in the Haitian Republic as free government. 

"Founded as it is upon force, with the strongest man at 
the head, nominally as president, but in reality a dictator, 
the Black Republic cannot endure another century as it is 
going now, without calling to it the attention of the 
world, and exciting its strongest reprobation. It is the 
desire of more than one government that the United 
States should take this irresponsible island republic in 
hand and administer to it a salutary lesson. Nothing short 
of extermination, some aver, could effect a reform in the 
Haitian body politic; but as this age does not tolerate the 
radical measures of the olden time it is not probable that 
the present generation will experience a reformation. Sir 
Spencer St. John, who was formerly the English Minister- 
Resident in Haiti, and who wrote an exhaustive account 



46 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

of the doings in the Black Republic, says, of it, among 
other things not complimentary: 'No country possesses 
greater capabilities, or a better geographical position, or 
more varied soil, climate, or production, with magnificent 
scenery of every description ; and yet it is now the country 
to be avoided, ruined as it has been by a succession of self- 
seeking politicians, without honesty or patriotism.' " — 
Ober, "The Wake of Columbus." 

"The island being thus derelict, Spain and England 
both tried their hand to recover it, but failed from the 
same cause, and a black nation, with a republican consti- 
tution and a population perhaps of about a million and a 
half of pure-blooded negroes, has since been in unchal- 
lenged possession, and has arrived at the condition which 
has been described to us by Sir Spencer St. John. Repub- 
lics which begin with murder and plunder do not come to 
much good in this world. Haiti has passed through many 
revolutions, and is no nearer than at first to stability. The 
present president, M. Salomon, who was long a refugee in 
Jamaica, came into power a few days back by a turn of 
the wheel. He was described to me as a peremptory gen- 
tleman who made quick work with his political oppo- 
nents. His term of office having nearly expired, he had 
reelected himself shortly before another seven years and 
was prepared to maintain his right by any measures which 
he might think expedient. He had a few regiments of 
soldiers, who, I was told, were devoted to him, and a 
fleet consisting of two gunboats commanded by an Ameri- 
can officer to whom he chiefly owed his security." — 
Froude, "The English in the West Indies." 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 47 

Says Rear-Admiral Colby M. Chester, U. S. 
Navy, a most careful and distinguished observer, 
Mn "Haiti: A Degenerating Island": 

"It is not possible within the limits of this paper to go 
into details regarding the turbulent history of Haiti. The 
fact that of its twenty-one rulers — from Dessalines to the 
one now holding power — four only have completed their 
terms of office, the most of them being driven out of the 
country, will show the general tendency of the people to 
revolution. History is here constantly repeating itself, 
summed up in the general statement that the 'outs' are 
always struggling to get into power, while the 'ins' are 
striving to retain possession of the spoils of office. 

"It is said that Haiti is getting blacker and blacker, the 
white element having been practically exterminated or 
removed from the island. . . . 

"In all its political history, Haiti, the beautiful, has 
been torn almost to shreds by its turbulent inhabitants, 
led on by a few aspiring chiefs, who rarely have had any 
other object in view than personal gain." 

"Of course, if Haiti were a true republic the people 
would have an opportunity to correct the abuses from 
which they suffer by exercising the manhood franchise to 
which, under the constitution, they are entitled, but, of 
all farces and travesties of popular institutions which are 
so prevalent in the Black Republic, that of the so-called 
popular elections is the most flagrant. Elections to the 
chamber are held or not held, not as prescribed by law 
and at the proper intervals, but simply when and how it 



48 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

may suit the personal convenience and private profit of the 
supreme military chief of the day. If he can secure more 
money in bribes from the deputies already assembled and 
in session than is offered by those desirous of legislative 
honors and opportunities for corruption, then the old 
chamber remains on indefinitely. If the new men offer to 
the military chief a sufficiently substantial inducement, the 
legislature in being is dismissed, although it may have 
enjoyed only a month of life, and new elections offered." — 
Bonsal, "The American Mediterranean." 

Again says Bonsai : 

"In the winter of 1907-08, when twenty-two of the 
adherents of Dr. Firmin fell into the hands of the ad- 
ministration general at St. Marc, that officer walked them 
out to the nearest cemetery, and after they had dug a 
trench deep enough to hold their bodies, had them shot 
and buried. He then reported to his commander-in-chief, 
President Nord Alexis, the occurrence textually as fol- 
lows : 

" 'Feeling confident that my proces verbal of the affair, 
which I shall have drawn up at the earliest possible mo- 
ment, would meet with 5^our excellency's approval, to 
save time, I have executed the twenty-two prisoners — 
provisionally.' This butcher never received a word of 
censure, but, on the contrary, was promoted by his chief." 

The first effort of a revolutionist is to obtain 
possession of the custom house, so as to provide 
the sinews of war and to obtain perquisites for 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 49 

those in charge of the revolution. Then ensues a 
massacre of those who followed the unsuccessful 
aspirant for the presidency. 

"At its head is a president assisted by two chambers, 
the members of which are elected and hold office under a 
constitution of 1889. This constitution, thoroughly re- 
publican in form, is French in origin, as are also the laws, 
language, traditions and customs in Haiti. In practice, 
however, the government resolves itself into a military 
despotism, the power being concentrated in the hands of a 
president. The Haitians seem to possess everything that a 
progressive and civilized nation can desire, but corruption 
is spread through every portion and branch of the govern- 
ment. Justice is venal, and the police are brutal and inef- 
ficient." — Encyclopedia Britannica. 

"But the same causes which tended then to demoralize 
the country and unsettle its people are those that render it 
a hotbed of revolution to-day. The bankruptcy of its 
treasury, the ambition of aspiring chiefs, the hatred of 
disappointed ones, and the want of any regular system of 
commerce and agriculture, with the incubus of an army 
living in idleness and eating up the substance of the land, 
must have their effect." — Hazard, "San Domingo and 
Haiti." 

"Official peculation, judicial murder, and utter corrup- 
tion of every kind underlie the forms and titles of civilized 
government; the religion, nominally Christian, is largely 
vaudoux or serpent-worship, in which actual and horrible 



50 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

cannibalism is even now a most important element. In- 
stead of progressing, the negro republicans have gone 
back to the lowest type of African barbarism." — Chambers 
Encyclopedia. 

"A land of continuous revolution." — Encyclopedia Bri- 
tannic a. 

The written and ostensible form of government 
of the Republic of Haiti is modeled in a general 
manner after that of our republic. The govern- 
ment is divided into three branches, legislative, 
executive, and judicial. The national legislature 
is composed of two chambers: a Senate and a 
House of Representatives. According to the Con- 
v I stitution, the members of the Chamber of Repre- 
sentatives are elected by the people for a term of 
three years. The Senate is chosen for a term of 
six years by the representatives from a list fur- 
nished by a Board of Electors and the President 
of the Republic. The President of the Republic is 
elected by the National Assembly for a term of 
seven years. He has a cabinet, each member of 
which has charge of the duties pertaining to his 
department, and these departments are modeled 
along the lines of those of the United States. 

The Chamber of Representatives, when the pre- 
tense of an election is carried out, is really re- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 51 

turned by the President. Those desiring an elec- 
tion to the Chamber of Representatives make 
their arrangements with the President of the Re- 
public, or the President, if he desires certain men 
returned, has the general in charge of the district, 
who is an appointee of the President, return 
them as a matter of course. In the majority of 
cases these names are returned by the general 
without even the pretense of an election. The re- 
turns are absolutely in the control of the Presi- 
dent and of the twelve thousand ragged banditti 
who constitute the army, men who are entirely 
dependent upon him. It is a military despotism 
pure and simple, founded upon greed and desire 
of power ; and there is scarcely any pretense of a 
free election or a free government. 

The republic is divided into five departments, 
which in turn are subdivided, and all the execu- 
tive officers of these departments are appointed by 
the President of the Republic and are under his 
absolute control. The taxes are farmed out for 
the benefit of the President and the clique that 
surrounds him ; and while no general taxes are im- 
posed by the Constitution, still, as a matter of fact, 
every one who has any occupation or property is 
compelled to pay a percentage, either to the Presi- 
dent or to the ring that controls public affairs. 



52 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

From the highest office to the lowest there exists a 
condition of imposition and public dishonesty. 
The legal taxes arise from the import and export 
duties at the custom houses, and the custom house 
is the chief object of possession on the part of 
those desiring to control the government of the 
republic. 

A system of unparalleled corruption and self- 
interest controls this institution, and it is freely 
used to provide the requisites for the needs of the 
ever-ready revolution. The wickedest abuses pre- 
vail in the administration of the custom houses, 
and foreign firms are the chief sufferers in this 
direction. They are compelled to pay whatever 
is required by the President and his satellites, 
without regard to justice. 

The island is harried by the governors of the 
departments and by the officials of the districts 
into which the departments are divided. The 
most flagrant outrages are committed upon the 
people. The army of twelve thousand is the ready 
instrument for this work, and it is used relent- 
lessly by the officials for the purpose of hounding 
the people, preying upon every man, whether he 
be a poor peasant planting a banana patch or a 
foreigner attempting to work the terms of a con- 
cession. This system has destroyed the hope and 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 53 

the welfare of the people, and the citizens are ter- 
rorized to an extent rarely known elsewhere. 

The President and his satellites have absolute 
control of the treasury, and the largest amount of 
the debt of this devoted island has been made by 
its rulers at ruinous interest and at reckless sacri- 
fice of the rights of the people. A loan is made, 
out of which the President and the horde around 
him exact an enormous part, and the burden is 
saddled upon the people. The money is used to 
carry on the ever-present revolution, or is em- 
ployed to support the greedy horde of extortion- 
ists surrounding the President and his so-called 
government. 

Men, without pretense of law, are drafted into 
the army and are compelled to fight, and in the 
revolutions that are ever recurrent most inhuman 
atrocities are perpetrated. These revolutions are 
bloody affairs without pretense of control by the 
rules of civilized warfare; and by reason of them 
a vast number of the people are impoverished to 
the extent of starvation, which exists in a land that 
smiles under a bright sky, amid cooling winds, and 
blessed with the most fertile soil in the world. 

While all this is true, the forms of justice are 
in full effect. The republic has a Supreme Court, 
and there is also a Court of Appeals in each dis- 



54 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

trict. The whole paraphernalia of the courts is 
under the control of the President, and those who 
dispense justice dispense it according to his desires 
and under his commands. He has the sole power 
of appointment and removal. 

That the course of justice has a hard road to 
travel is readily understood when it is known that 
every department is presided over by a general, 
appointed by the President, and that he is held 
responsible for whatever taxes are collected, for 
the control of the courts, and for the absolute ac- 
quiescence of every department in the will of the 
President. 

The governor of the department, who is a mili- 
tary chief, has absolute control of the life of his 
district. He is paid a nominal sum, yet he is ex- 
pected to maintain at least a fifth part of the army 
needed by the President to sustain his authority. 
His expenses are hundreds of times the amount 
of money he legally receives, and it is his duty on 
a salary of a few dollars each month to bring to 
the standard of the President from five hundred 
to two thousand soldiers, equipped to carry on the 
saturnalia of bloodshed and carnage. 

There is but one way that this can be effectively 
done, and that is by a system of rapine, a system 
by which the people are harried to supply the sol- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 5$ 

diery and the expense needed for their sustenance 
and equipment. Not only is the money necessary 
for this equipment exacted from the people, but 
with it the general of the department seizes a suf- 
ficiency to support him in licentious plenty. This 
system of wrong-doing compels the peasant to se- 
crete his banana patch in some fastness of the 
mountain, or to raise his little crop where the ra- 
pacious eyes of the marauders about the general 
will not fall upon it. The inevitable result is a 
reign of terror, destruction of agriculture, and the 
complete paralysis of trade. 

This system has brought about a condition 
scarcely equaled anywhere in the world, because 
this is not a reign of terror that builds a great sys- 
tem of government upon the ruins of the people ; 
for here, while the people are destroyed, they re- 
ceive no compensation in the splendor or perma- 
nency of their government. There is no escape 
from this condition, for the reason that the mili- 
tary system, in the hands of the bloodthirsty 
rulers, is too strong, and the long permanence of 
the reign of terror has had its inevitable effect 
upon the life and the spirit of the people. 

The general of the department keeps around 
him at all times a horde of marauders, attached to 
him in the interest of plunder. When the Presi- 



56 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE 



'0- \jV* 



dent desires troops, the order is sent to the general 
for the number needed by the President, and the 
citizen is taken from his farm or his shop, his 
family is left to starve, and he is taken to the city 
where the troops are being collected, and, half 
naked and half starved, is thrown into a stockade, 
or he is actually bound, and, under an armed 
guard, is put into the ranks and compelled to fight. 
If he despair and refuse to do as told, he is shot 
down like a beast of the field and interred in a 
shallow grave by the roadside. 

Thus, throughout the whole of the island the 
terror-stricken people are unable to carry on any 
trade, nor can they pursue any calling necessary 
for their sustenance. Under their system no for- 
eigner can hold land. The whole government is 
in the hands of the blacks, and the provision, by 
which a white man can do business, hold land, and 
in a manner enjoy the rights of citizenship by the 
marriage of a black wife, has been done away 
with, and the absolute control of all the property 
in the island is in the hands of the negroes. 

A fair illustration of the system of election is 
exemplified by the election of Nord Alexis in 1902. 
Being in control of the government forces and not 
having been known as an aspirant for the presi- 
dency, upon the assembling of the national assem- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 57 

bly Alexis demanded that he should be elected 
President. To his repeated demands the national 
assembly paid little attention. On the eve of his 
so-called election his troops in the field surrounded 
'the palace, falling into firing groups. In the pal- j/ 
ace preparations for a banquet were in progress. 
Entering the national assembly, he notified it that 
its members could elect him President and go to 
the banquet, or face the firing squads being formed 
in the yard. He was elected by acclamation. 

This is but one of hundreds of illustrations of 
the hollow pretense of free government in this 
island. An election means but a revolution flow- 
ing with blood. The government is a despotism 
pure and simple, a despotism that fattens upon 
the blood of an ignorant people, and is only a 
horrid pretense of free government. Read this 
record of its unstable and gory governmental life : 

1804. Dessalines crowned as emperor. 

1806. He is assassinated; war between Haiti 

and San Domingo. 

1807. Christophe becomes king under title of 

Henry the First ; war. 
181 1. Petion president of southern part; civil 
war. 



58 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

1820. Boyer declared regent for life; after tre- 
mendous insurrection and flow of blood 
Christophe commits suicide. 

1 843. Boyer deposed and exiled after revolution. 

1844. Rivirere exiled after one year; war. 

1845. Guerrier in office one year. 

1845. Pierror abdicated. 

1846. Riche proclaimed president; died in one 

year. 

1847. Soloque declared emperor after many 

wars and much bloodshed; exiled in 
1859. 

1858-59. Geffrard president until 1867; then 
exiled. 

1856-57. Dreadful revolution wherein Salnave 
revolts, takes refugees from British 
consulates, and kills them ; English ship 
drives them out and helps Geffrard; 
Geffrard banished, Salnave made presi- 
dent, with a new constitution; revolt 
suppressed amid torrents of blood. 

1868-70. Continual revolution; Salnave massa- 
cres his enemies; proclaims himself em- 
peror, is finally defeated and shot. 

1870-74. Nissage Saget; completed his four 
years. 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 59 

1874. Domingue seized the government, and 
after bloody revolution exiled in 
1876. 

1876. Canal, after bloody revolution, seizes 
power; after many revolutions he is ex- 
pelled in 1879. 

1879. Salomon elected; reelected 1886. 

1888. Salomon deposed and exiled; civil war 
between Hipolyte and Legitime; Legi- 
time placed in office for one year and 
exiled. 

1889-96. Hipolyte, after many insurrections, 
died in office; supposed to have been 
poisoned. 

1896. Simon Sam president; trouble with Ger- 
many; numerous disorders until 1899. 

1900. Sam takes all the funds and leaves the 
country. 

1902. General Nord Alexis proclaimed presi- 
dent. 

1908. Nord Alexis retired by revolution; Pow- 
ers sent warships to stop massacre. 

191 1. Cincinnatus Le Conte proclaimed presi- 

dent; killed in 19 12. 

19 1 2. Tancrede Auguste appointed president; 

killed in May, 19 13. 



60 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

19 13. Michael Orresti proclaimed president; 

was retired by revolution January 27, 
1914. 

19 14. Orresti Zamor assumed the presidency 

February 8, 19 14, and at last accounts 
was still alive. 

By this chronology it will be seen that the con- 
stitutional office for a president in Haiti is seven 
yyears, and President Salomon, who held office 
from 1879 t0 1886, is apparently the only Haitian 
president to fill out his term of office. He was 
killed, however, within two years after his reelec- 
tion for a second term in 1886. 

A writer, one who occupies a high position in 
the Haitian government, has lately put forth a 
masterpiece of special pleading in defense of his 
government. Any defense of this kind is idle. 
Within a month it has reeked with blood under the 
throes of one of its almost continuous revolutions. 
Our government has been again compelled to in- 
tervene and save the lives of many of the parties 
engaged in this internecine war. A number of 
times, by reason of this situation, war has been 
almost precipitated between the Haitian govern- 
ment and the European nations, and the warships 
of Great Britain, France, and Germany are only 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 61 

too frequent in the harbors of Haiti, protecting 
their subjects, demanding redress of grievances, 
and saving human life. Sooner or later the irre- 
sponsible government of the Republic of Haiti 
will commit the act that will involve us under the 
first clause and original application of the Monroe 
Doctrine. If it were not for the Monroe Doc- 
trine, backed by the strong hands of this govern- 
ment, this island to-day would be under the control 
of a European nation. 



/ 



62 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 



VII 
MORAL CONDITIONS IN HAITI 

Let us pursue this investigation and further 
consider the moral and religious condition of 
Haiti. 

Religion is but a pretense. The worship of the 
green snake and the control of the voodoo are 
everywhere prevalent. The island has degener- 
ated from its once high estate, and there is no pre- 
tense but what the Papaloi and the Mamaloi are 
as potent as any of the figures in its life. It seems 
to be true, that on any night the horrid rites of 
the voodoo can be witnessed in the heart of the 
capital of Haiti, surrounded by the soldiers in the 
uniform of the Haitian government. In the book 
mentioned this statement is denied, and the asser- 
tion is made that Haiti has been slandered by the 
book writers and the magazine makers, by "un- 
scrupulous writers and travelers." This assertion 
is unbelievable. I do not quote Srjencer St. John, 
the English minister, a resident in this" fsfanaror 
many years, who states in detail the horror of 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 63 

despotism that governs the island, and who gives 
the details of the dreadful practice of the voodoo, 
and who charges child stealing and cannibalism to 
these people. I will give only a few of the many 
other proofs. 

"A man, of course a general, is in prison for treason or 
a detournement of funds. (This is a delicate way they 
speak of stealing in Haiti when they will speak of it at 
all.) It is a question of such minor importance, simply 
whether the man shall live or die, that the President will 
not defer it to the Papaloi or Voodoo priest, who lives in 
the hills behind the city, so he drops a manikin of clay 
upon the floor. If it breaks, the man dies; if it remains 
intact, then he lives — as long as the noisome atmosphere 
of a Haitian prison will let him. . . . 

"Again the doubt, the President would draw a line 
across the floor of his sanctum and then pitch manikins, 
this time made of wood and attired in the gaudy glory of 
Haitian generals. If the puppets passed the line, it meant 
one thing; if they lagged behind, it meant another, and so 
the State papers were fashioned and the presidential de- 
crees inspired in Haiti. 

"But of course upon the graver questions the £apaloi 
and the ^damaloi, the high priest and the high priestess 
of the Voodoo sect, sat in judgment. The Papaloi, or 
Guinea coast prophet, with his fetich worship and his 
Congo prayers, is the one solid, substantial fact in Haiti. 
Around about him turn Haitian life and politics. In some 
administrations the doors of the Black House have not 
been as wide open to these prophets of the night as they 



64 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

were while Nord Alexis ruled, but never have they been 
closed except in the reign of the mulatto Geffrard some 
forty years ago, and his was a short and little day and 
ended with exile to Jamaica, where, under the guidance 
of intelligent and sympathetic white men, the Afro- 
American is accomplishing more, perhaps, than anywhere 
else. 

"The cannibalistic feed is only indulged in on rare 
occasions and at long intervals, and is always shrouded in 
mystery and hedged about with every precaution against 
interlopers; for, be their African ignorance ever so dense, 
their carnal fury ever so unbridled, the Papalois and 
Mamalois, the head men and head women worshipers 
never seem to forget that in these vile excesses there 
should perhaps be found excuse enough for the interfer- 
ence of the civilized world to save the people of the Black 
Republic from the further degradation which awaits 
them. 

"Within the last fifteen years human victims have been 
sacrificed to the great god Voodoo in the national palace 
of Haiti. Last February there was assembled in the na- 
tional palace what might justly be called a congress of 
serpent worshipers. During the life of Mme. Nord, 
which came to an end in October, 1908, not a week passed 
but what a meeting of the Voodoo practitioners was held 
in the executive mansion, and her deathbed was sur- 
rounded by at least a score of these witch doctors." — 
yBoNSAL, "The American Mediterranean." 

"The serpent is the deity of the voodoos, and he is 
represented by a high priest, called the Papaloi, and a 
priestess, the Mamaloi ; meaning the father and the mother 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 6s 

king. Their demands are absolute, and no sectary dare 
disobey them. In this lies their menace to good govern- 
ment, and it is well known that even some of the rulers 
of Haiti have been dominated by them. The worship of 
the serpent is carried on as secretly as possible; the sec- 
taries are bound by oaths of secrecy, and their incantations 
take place in the night. The serpent is consulted, through 
the priest or priestess, and the devotees then indulge in 
dancing and song, generally ending in the grossest forms 
of debauchery." — Ober, "The Wake of Columbus." 

"But this is not the worst. Immorality is so universal 
that it almost ceases to be a fault, for a fault implies an 
exception, and in Haiti it is the rule. Young people make 
experiment of one another before they will enter into any 
closer connection. So far they are no worse than in our 
own English islands, where the custom is equally general ; 
but behind the immorality, behind the religiosity, there lies 
active and alive the horrible revival of the West African 
superstitions; the serpent worship, and the child sacrifice, 
and the cannibalism. There is no room to doubt it. A 
missionary assured me that an instance of it occurred 
only a year ago within his own personal knowledge. The 
facts are notorious ; a full account was published in one of 
the local newspapers, and the only result was that the 
President imprisoned the editor for exposing the country. 
A few years ago persons guilty of these infamies were 
tried and punished; now they are left alone, because to 
prosecute and convict them would be to acknowledge the 
truth of the indictment." — Froude, "The English in the 
West Indies." 

"No accurate history of Haiti can be written without 



66 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

reference to the horrible sorcery, called the religion of 
Voodoo, which was introduced into the country with the 
slaves from Africa. Its creed is that the God Voodoo has 
the power usually ascribed to the Christian's Lord, and 
that he shows himself to his good friends, the negroes, un- 
der the form of a non-venomous snake, and transmits his 
power through a chief priest or priestess. These are 
called either king and queen, master or mistress, or gen- 
erally as Papalois and Mamalois. The principal act of 
worship consists of a wild dance, attended by grotesque 
, eJ. c ^; gesticulations, which leads up to the most disgraceful 
r<H> r V cC (,H*f or gi es * A secret oath binds all the voodoos, on the taking 
;^Li ^ of which, the lips of the neophyte are usually touched with 
jg^ /warm goat's blood, which is intended to inspire terror. 

He promises to submit to death should he ever reveal the 
secrets of the fraternity, and to put to death any traitor 
to the sect. It is affirmed, and no doubt is true, that on 
special occasions a sacrifice is made of a living child, or 
the "goat without horns," as it is called, and then canni- 
balism in its worst form is indulged in. Under the cir- 
cumstances of taking the oath of allegiance, it should 
cause no surprise that the Haitians claim that this is not 
true and defy any white man to produce evidence of guilt. 
But, notwithstanding, no one can read the horrible tales 
published by one of the British ministers to Haiti, which 
described in detail the revolting practices of the voodoos, 
together with the proofs he brings to substantiate the 
truth of the allegations, without coming to the reluctant 
conclusion that cannibalism is resorted to in these meetings. 
Of course, no white man could long live on the island after 
having given testimony leading to the conviction of cul- 
prits in such cases, and therefore the negroes' demand for 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 67 

proof can never be satisfied. Indeed, it is said that 
even some presidents who have openly discouraged the 
voodoo practices have come to violent deaths from this 
cause. 

"The character of the meetings of the voodoos, which 
take place in secluded spots in the thick woods, is well 
known, and I have been given a description of one of them 
from an eye-witness, who is an officer of our navy, which 
no one could hear without a shudder. He states in brief 
that one day while out hunting he abruptly ran into a 
camp of worshipers, which was located in a lonely spot 
in the woods, and the horrors he there saw made an in- 
delible impression upon his mind. 

"When his presence was discovered he was immediate- 
ly seized by a frenzied crowd of men and women, and for 
some minutes there did not seem to be a question but that 
his life was to be forfeited ; but the Papalois called a halt 
and a council, apparently, to determine what action should 
be taken, and while this was in session a handful of coin, 
judiciously scattered, diverted the thoughts of the negroes 
for the time being from their captive. The usual sacri- 
fice of a live white rooster was now brought on, seeing 
which the people were called back to their worship, and 
the ceremonies went on in his presence. 

"In the horrible struggle which took place for posses- 
sion, the bird was torn literally to pieces, and he had no 
doubt that its accompaniment, the "goat without horns," 
would soon follow. While this was in progress his pres- 
ence seemed to be forgotten, and, watching a good oppor- 
tunity, he ran for his very life, not stopping until he 
reached the protection of his ship. 



68 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

Rear-Admiral Chester further says : 

"But there is one thing common to the whole country, 
of which every Haitian denies the existence : Vaudoux is 
the one thing which they declare they have not. They tell 
you there is no snake- worship ( I am speaking of the higher 
classes) within the bounds of the republic. But when you 
betray certain knowledge of the subject, they admit that 
though sacrifices and savage dances may take place in other 
departments, no such things are known in that one in 
which you at the moment find yourself. 

"Thus in Jacmel they told me I should find Vaudoux 
in Port-au-Prince and the Plain of Cul-de-Sac. In Port- 
au-Prince, as I was actually returning from witnessing a 
sacrifice within the limits of the town, I was advised to go 
to the Cape, where alone such rites flourished. And at 
the Cape they told me to take ship for Jacmel, for there I 
would assuredly find them. As a matter of plain fact, 
the traveler riding across the country in any direction is 
quite likely to come suddenly in view of the ceremonies 
in full swing. He will see the tell-tale dances, the faces 
smeared in blood, perhaps even the body of the black goat, 
the sacred sacrifice." — Prichard, "Where Black Rules 
White." 

"It may bear away the palm of being the most foul- 
smelling, dirty, and consequently fever-stricken city in the 
world. Every one throws his refuse before his door, so 
that heaps of manure and every species of rubbish encum- 
ber the way. 

"As to the streets, they do not seem to have been mend- 
ed for the last hundred years. The Haitians have a say- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 69 

ing, 'Bon Dieu gate li; bon Dieu paree li' (God spoilt 
them, and God will mend them). As the 'bon Dieu' 
only helps those who help themselves, and as the Haitians 
have no desire to help themselves in the way of making 
or repairing their roadways, their condition is frightful 
beyond description. The gutters are open, pools of stag- 
nant and fetid water obstruct the streets everywhere, and 
receive constant accessions from the inhabitants using them 
as cesspools and sewers. There are few good buildings 
in town, and none in the country, the torch of the incen- 
diary being constantly applied, and no ecouragement of- 
fered to rebuild, through protection of the government or 
local enterprises. Buildings destroyed by earthquake or 
fire are never replaced, and the nearest approach to re- 
building is seen in the slab shanty leaning against the 
ruined walls of a large structure demolished." — Op^p^^-I. Y 
"In the Wake of Columbus." 

^ Rear-Admiral Colby M. Chester, in his article 

on "Haiti: A Degenerating Island," further says: 

"Of the eleven ports of Haiti open to foreign com- 
merce, Cape Haitien and Port-au-Prince are the largest 
and most progressive. 

"Cape Haitien, or 'The Cape,' as it is commonly called, 
is situated on the northwestern coast, at the foot of a hill 
that slopes back to the sea, with most picturesque sur- 
roundings. It has a commodious harbor and supports a 
population of 30,000 or 40,000 people. Under the French, 
it was the capital of the colony, and its wealth, splendor, 
and luxury gained for it the name of Little Paris ; but now 



70 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

the structures erected by the French in colonial days are 
a mass of ruins, the parks overgrown with tropical weeds, 
the fountains choked with debris, the gutters filled with 
filth, all producing pestilential emanations from which for- 
eigners speedily run away, if they are forced into its en- 
vironments. 

"Port-au-Prince, the present capital of the Republic, as 
well as its largest and most important city, is likewise most 
picturesquely located at the foot of hills, where one may 
escape from its blistering and filthy streets to mountain 
resorts that would be popular if located in almost any 
country of the world. Unlike Cape Haitien, the city is 
cut off from the trade-winds, to which this island owes 
so much of its salubriousness, and therefore it is hot; but 
still the traveler caught in the town may frequently felici- 
tate himself when he reads that cities in our own country 
have higher temperatures by 10 to 15 degrees than is 
usually found here. The city is well supplied with the 
most delicious mountain water, and if its 60,000 inhabi- 
tants used it as freely as do Americans, it might be as clean 
as nature made it. As it is, it may well hold the palm for 
being the most filthy, foul-smelling, and, consequently, 
fever-stricken city in the world. The gutters of the 
streets, which may be said to cover the whole roadbeds, 
are filled with stagnant waters and are used as cesspools 
by the people. But for the torrential rains, which pour 
down the mountain sides and carry off all the filth, into 
the beautiful bay, even a Haitian could not live there. 
But the bay, thus polluted, is quite as much of a menace to 
health as the city itself. During the visits of American 
men-of-war to the port, most of the time is spent in keep- 
ing the people from the pestilential vapors which emanate 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 71 

from the sea itself. The water of the harbor is so bad 
that it cannot be used even for scrubbing the decks of 
the ship." 

"No one can foretell the future of the Black Republic, 
but the present order of things cannot last in an island so 
close under the American shores. If the Americans forbid 
any other power to interfere, they will have to interfere 
themselves. If they find Mormonism an intolerable blot 
upon their escutcheon, they will have to put a stop in 
some way or other to cannibalism and devil-worship. 
Meanwhile, the ninety years of negro self-government 
have had their use in showing what it really means, and if 
English statesmen, either to save themselves trouble or to 
please the prevailing uninstructed sentiment, insist on ex- 
tending it, they will be found when the accounts are made 
up to have been no better friends to the unlucky negro 
than their slave-trading forefathers." — Froude, "The 
English in the West Indies." 

Mining is largely an unknown occupation in 
Haiti. Agriculture has languished, although it is 
true that in 19 12 the coffee crop increased, and 
concessions have been made to some timber enter- 
prises ; but little has been done in the way of en- 
terprise and action in this island situated athwart 
the commerce of the world. If this condition were 
sporadic and lasted but for a time, it would be a 
proposition for consideration ; but when the island 
is lapsing practically into degeneracy, when the 



72 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

government is a continuous revolution, and the 
state of religion is as the proofs indicated, are not 
the peace and safety of this country constantly in 
peril by reason of the condition of this island, so 
near to us and so important to our life? 

These statements are not pleasant. They are 
not made for any sinister purpose; the object is to 
bring to the attention of our people a condition of 
affairs at our very doors, a condition that is of 
vital and increasing importance to this nation. It 
is easy to apply the Monroe Doctrine as to non- 
W interference on the part of European nations with 
our hemisphere. The great question is our own 
position with the nations of this hemisphere, na- 
tions that may offend against the doctrine which 
conserves the peace and safety of our government. 
With the world movement of to-day, with the 
enormous changes which have taken place by rea- 
son of the building of the Isthmian Canal, can 
our peace and safety be preserved if we sit by and 
allow an international nuisance to bring upon this 
\/ country the interference of the nations of Europe, 
and compel us by blood and treasure to enforce the 
original application of our doctrine of European 
non-interference? Free Cuba and the free Cen- 
tral and South American states attest the fact that 
one of the great fundamental desires of this re- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 73 

public is that it shall be surrounded by free peo- 
ples and free governments. It seems to be appar- 
ent, however, that the time has arrived when the 
conditions in and along the Gulf of Mexico and 
the Caribbean Sea can no longer be tolerated. 
These seas, for many years, have been silent seas. 
The conditions are now changed, and the great 
trade routes of the world will pass about this 
island and over these seas, which will be noisy 
with the whirl of the propeller and bright with the 
sails of ships. 

"The peoples of European civilization, after a period of 
comparative repose, are again advancing all along the line, 
to occupy not only the desert places of the earth but the 
debatable grounds, the buffer territories, which hitherto 
have separated them from those ancient nations, with 
whom they now soon must stand face to face and border 
to border." — MahanX 

Can the peace and safety of this country be pre- 
served unless we adopt the measures which are the 
inalienable right of every nation? The world, 
with the shortening of trade routes, the touching 
of nations, and their needs for sure commercial 
conditions, is arriving at the thought that there is 
no inalienable right on the part of any people to 
control any region to the detriment and injury of 



74 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

the world at large. This is not a covert assertion 
that under the Monroe Doctrine this nation can 
take control of the affairs of other states of this 
hemisphere, when the policy of that country does 
not suit our theories and ideas. It means, how- 
ever, that when a country on these two seas per- 
sists in being an international nuisance, when it 
shows to the world a condition of general degen- 
eracy, by which it practically gives notice that 
there can be no improvement, this government, 
under the Monroe Doctrine, will adopt measures 
for its own peace and protection and for the pres- 
ervation of the trade and commerce of the seas, 
which are within this country's commercial life. 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 75 



VIII 
OBJECT OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

The Monroe Doctrine is nothing more nor less 
than a doctrine of_self-preservation. To permit 
the condition of the Republic of Haiti to exist, 
without interference or protest on our part, is 
illogical. Under the Monroe Doctrine we say to 
European nations that they shall not for any cause 
lay their hands heavily upon a country in this 
hemisphere. At the same time, in accordance with 
the views of many people of our day, we ourselves 
have not the right to interfere. Hence, unless we 
interfere or permit the European nations that 
privilege there must be a continuance of the 
status. 

The original object of the Monroe Doctrine 
was to prevent the control and colonization of the 
independent states of this hemisphere by Euro- 
pean nations. This does not mean that with any 
orderly or stable government this government 
should occupy the position of suzerainty or im- 



76 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

plied control. No American believes that great 
states, like Argentina, Brazil, or Chile, with their 
stable governments, should be under our control, 
either implied or actual./ Still, every one who un- 
derstands the conditions of the day believes that a 
logical corollary of the Monroe Doctrine demands 
that the nations of this hemisphere shall, in their 
governmental affairs, do nothing that would in- 
\/ fringe upon the rights or impair the peace and 
safety of the American government.) Since the 
construction of the canal, this condition has be- 
come intensified. This government is practically a 
trustee for the world in its possession of the Isth- 
mian Canal. Is it conceivable that, with our enor- 
mously increased interests, we should sit idly by 
and allow the peace and safety of this country to 
be interfered with by a country that is a plague 
spot to the nations of the earth? 

A great part of American commerce and a 
large part of the traffic of the world will be 
through the American seas, between the walls of 
this canal, and by the shores of this island. These 
seas will become more populous with commerce 
than any other section of the world. Thejf will be 
a gathering place and a crossing point for the 
East and the West; : and their "possession, either 
forcibly or otherwise, will carry with it more po- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 77 

tentiality than the possession of any other body of 
water on the face of the earth. It will be abso- 
lutely necessary that the outposts of the canal shall 
be in the hands of strong and stable governments, 
and it cannot be thought that the harbors neces- 
sary for that commerce and the islands by which 
it will pass, islands in whose broad bays it will be 
compelled to anchor, shall be rife with revolution 
and dangerous to that commerce. Is it wise that 
this country, which is practically guardian of this 
commerce, should allow a condition to obtain that 
is a daily menace to this great American com- 
merce — a condition that will surely bring about 
complications which must interfere with the peace 
and safety of this country? 

This great traffic must be clear and safe, and 
the responsibility is upon us to see that within these 
seas the rights of a hundred million people and 
their unborn descendants shall not be infringed 
by countries that are not able to preserve a stable 
government for themselves. 

Our government believes that the fundamental 
principles of a country's life should be freedom 
and consent of the governed, yet it is idle to speak 
of the consent of the governed in an island which 
has never known anything but a blood-stained des- 
potism. 



78 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

"It is untruthful folly to assert that it is possible for 
the United States, or for any other great nation, to treat 
an anarchic and wrongdoing country on a footing of real 
and full equality of which I have above spoken as repre- 
senting that plane of conduct which should characterize 
all the dealings between my nation and your own, and my 
nation and certain other South American republics. I 
hope, and I am reasonably confident, that the less advanced 
nations of the New World will in their turn gradually 
advance just as my nation and yours, as well as certain 
others, have already advanced. As soon as any such na- 
tion in the course of its advance reaches a position of self- 
respecting strength and orderly liberty and achieved power 
to do and to exact justice, then it should at once step out 
from any position of tutelage in any respect." — Roose- 
velt, "Chile and the Monroe Doctrine." 



A distinguished writer, in advocating the abro- 
gation of the Monroe Doctrine, speaks of it as if 
all danger to the South and Central American re- 
publics were over. Permit a little plain speaking 
on this subject, for frankness is sometimes help- 
ful in the great affairs of the world as well as in 
the small. 

I believe if it had not been for the promulgation 
and the enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine by 
this republic, there would not to-day be on the 
continent of South America, or in Central Amer- 
ica, a government independent of European con- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 79 

trol. Let us look at the situation of to-day 
throughout the world, and ascertain if there is any 
change in the desires of the nations since the pro- 
mulgation of the Monroe Doctrine. 

The earth hunger of the European countries is 
fiercer than ever in its history. Their vastly in- 
creasing populations demand an enlargement of 
their national life, and the peoples of the Euro- 
pean governments demand more food and more 
labor than their countries can furnish. The great 
new markets of the world are South and Central 
America, China, and some parts of Africa. China 
has been practically delimited into spheres of in- 
fluence by the European governments, and the 
Japanese, and Mongolia has been raped from her 
bosom. The gaunt breast of Africa has been 
seized and marked out by the European govern- 
ments for their own. The whitening bones of 
Italian, Arab, and Turk in Tripoli, the fierce an- 
ger of France and Germany only last year over 
Morocco, the busy colonization plans of Europe 
in Northern Africa, the strife over the dying 
Moslem Empire, the seizure and occupation of 
Egypt by England, and the tremendous conflict be- 
tween Russia and Japan, which, in its last analy- 
sis, was a conflict for territory, all attest that to- 
day the earth hunger is not satiated. From this 



80 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

it seems that were it not for the power of the 
Monroe Doctrine, within ten years, excepting Ar- 
gentine, Brazil, and Chile, there would not be a 
free and independent government in South Amer- 
ica. Their marvelous natural wealth, their splen- 
dor of climate, their richness of flora and fauna, 
and their wealth of precious metals, would more 
surely provoke the desire of the European nations 
than the gaunt, fever-stricken and fierce sunburned 
wastes of Africa. 

"The territorial responsibilities of the Latin-American 
nations are greatly in excess of their respective popula- 
tions. The seventeen republics from Mexico to Cape 
Horn, with an area several times that of Central Europe, 
contain at best seventy million inhabitants, who could be 
comfortably housed in any one of the larger republics, 
leaving the immense remaining territory available for 
European expansion. Can Tripoli compare with the 
broad and fertile plains of Northern Venezuela, border- 
ing on the Caribbean? Or Morocco with the At- 
lantic coast section of Colombia? Can the Congo com- 
pare favorably with the Amazon, or Madagascar or West 
Africa with the inner lands of Peru, or Bolivia, or of 
Ecuador ? 

"The consideration of such possibilities implies no wan- 
ton spirit of alarmism. If Tripoli has been thought worth 
Italy's present effort, and Morocco France's recent ven- 
ture, why should not the infinitely richer Caribbean coast 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 81 

fare likewise? No one in his senses, surely, would out- 
rage the Powers by supposing that their abstention has 
been prompted by moral considerations; their reputation 
is too well established."- — Senor A. deManon-Albas, in 
the English Review of Reviews, quoted by Wheless. 



82 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 



IX 



APPLICATION OF THE MONROE DOC- 
TRINE 

Those who feel that the Monroe Doctrine is 
outworn, that it should be abrogated, evidently 
do not remember very modern history. My mean- 
ing is illustrated by an incident in connection with 
one of the great ABC nations of the South 
American continent, an incident that many of us 
remember as if it had occurred yesterday, when 
the revolution against the republic was inaugu- 
rated in Brazil. For the purpose of reestablish- 
ing the empire, the navy of Brazil was in favor of 
the overturning of the republic and the restoration 
of the Braganza family to the head of an imperial 
Brazilian government. In the harbor of Rio 
Janeiro was congregated an assembly of the war- 
ships of the monarchies of Europe and of the re- 
public of the United States. The commanders of 
the European squadrons were in sympathy with 
the revolutionists and were unwilling to do any- 
thing that would interfere with the plans of the 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 83 

imperialists. When the imperialists attempted to 
establish a blockade, to carry out their plans of 
revolution, the American commander, acting un- 
der the Monroe Doctrine, by direction of our gov- 
ernment in Washington, was the only naval com- 
mander who objected, and he cleared for action 
and forced the admiral commanding the imperial 
forces to desist from his purposes. It must be re- 
membered that this incident occurred only in 1893, 
and that it happened to the great republican gov- 
ernment of Brazil, our friend and neighbor. 

Let us take another modern and well-known ap- 
plication. So late as 1894 the British government 
attempted to force a situation with Venezuela, a 
situation that would bring about British control of 
the Orinoco region and practically shut up in 
British hands the control of one of the greatest 
rivers of commerce, a region that has imperial 
potentialities of trade and commercial life. Had 
it not been for the strong hand of this government, 
acting through the Monroe Doctrine and under its 
provisions, an important field of commerce, a vast 
region of South America, a great portion of an 
independent republic, and the control of a mighty 
river would to-day be in the grasp of the British 
empire. 

Another illustration was the attempted enforce- 



84 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

ment, 1 901 -1904, by the governments of Ger- 
many, England, and Italy of the payment of the 
Venezuelan debt. Had it not been for the vig- 
orous representations of our government that 
under the Monroe Doctrine it would not permit 
heavy burdens to be placed upon the Venezuelan 
Republic, it is plain that the European govern- 
ments would not have held their hands in the en- 
forcement of their claims against Venezuela. 
These governments have not often returned to the 
possession of their owners any territory taken 
under pretense of collection of debts or seized for 
the infringement of any of their rights. Here 
was a practical recognition, both by act and by 
written statement, of the enforcement of the 
Monroe Doctrine in preventing the great Euro- 
pean governments from laying their hands heavily 
upon countries of this hemisphere. The Magda- 
lena Bay incident is another case; and while the 
attempt to obtain possession of this important 
strategic position was denied, still there was, prac- 
tically, a recognition of the Doctrine by the Japa- 
nese government. 

The question of European interference is not 
dead. To every one who reads there arises the 
question of the settlement of the position of the 
great foreign colonies in South America. Every 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 85 

well-informed student of public affairs and inter- 
national matters is looking forward to the time 
when friction will develop between the home gov- 
ernments of these colonists and the republics with- 
in whose territories they live. 

The enormous importance of this has not been 
thoroughly understood by the people of our coun- 
try. One illustration of the many at hand will 
suffice in the statement of Prof. Schmoller, of the 
Prussian Privy Council: "We must wish that at 
any price a German country peopled by twenty or 
thirty million Germans must grow up in Brazil." 

"The people of the United States have learned in the 
school of experience to what extent the relations of states 
to each other depend, not upon sentiment nor principle, 
but upon selfish interest. They will not soon forget that, 
in their hour of distress, all their anxieties and burdens 
were aggravated by the possibility of demonstrations 
against their national life on the part of the powers with 
whom they had long maintained the most harmonious re- 
lations. They have yet in mind that France seized upon 
the apparent opportunity of our civil war to set up a mon- 
archy in the adjoining state of Mexico. They realize that 
had France and Great Britain held important South 
American possessions to work from and to benefit, the 
temptation to destroy the predominance of the Great Re- 
public in this hemisphere by furthering its dismemberment 
might have been irresistible. From that grave peril they 
have been saved in the past and may be saved again in 



86 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

the future through the operation of the sure but silent 
force of the doctrine proclaimed by President Monroe. 
To abandon it, on the other hand, disregarding both the 
logic of the situation and the facts of our past experience, 
would be to renounce a policy which has proved both an 
easy defense against foreign aggression and a prolific 
source of internal progress and prosperity." — Secretary 
Olney. 

We desire to go in peace and equity with the 
peoples of this hemisphere to that consummation 
where all will be kindliness and trust between this 
republic and our neighbors. Still, the great 
thought of this republic is that it is best for all to 
maintain the Monroe Doctrine in all its virility. 
With our President we expressly disclaim any de- 
sire of conquest, nor do we wish any suzerainty or 
control of the stable nations of this hemisphere. 
Here is where the correct differentiation as to the 
Latin countries is lost. It is idle to speak of the 
great nations, stable and orderly as they are, as 
standing on a level with disorderly, revolution- 
ridden despotisms, such as have been here dis- 
cussed and which largely obtain in Latin America. 
This doctrine is fundamentally necessary to the 
existence of the peace and safety of this country, 
and we wish the moral support of the great and 
stable nations of South America to carry it to its 
full fruition. 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 87 

The application of these propositions to the 
subject under consideration is plain. It will not 
do to say that the revolutions of these people mark 
an era and establish a stage of development on the 
line of governmental sobriety and national charac- 
ter, nor that they are contending for some great 
principle, as did the English in working out their 
ideas of constitutional government. Such is the 
contention of some of those that write of this 
island. No upward step had been taken by the 
Haitians; and while their continuous revolutions 
bring about an enormous loss in both govern- 
mental affairs and economic matters, these people 
will not reach the ultimate high level that will be 
for the benefit of mankind. By reason of their 
training, their inherent constitution, and their tra- 
ditions, their condition has become surely and 
steadily worse. We cannot say: "Let them 
alone; their condition will right itself," for there 
is nothing to show hope of improvement. 

This debased condition is not the result of cir- 
cumstances, which have been truly unfortunate, 
but it grows from the inherent nature and spirit of 
the people, fundamentals that cannot be changed 
by the few forms of civilization adopted by them. 
The proofs, so abundant, show that they are not 



88 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

fitted for self-government; and their condition, if 
left to itself, will become worse than it is to-day. 

By the control of the strong hand of a civilized 
government they may be able to emerge from the 
condition of anarchy and despair that surrounds 
their so-called republic; but they will never be able 
of themselves to rise from the deep bog in which 
they have been floundering for more than a cen- 
tury. 

This is well illustrated by the neighboring re- 
public of San Domingo. After the control by this 
government of its custom houses and finances, and 
the payment of its debts, and the honest expendi- 
ture of its greatly increased revenues, it would 
seem that the results would be sufficient to show 
the people that the ways of civilization are happier 
than are the ways of revolution and anarchy. 
However, after nine years of debt-paying, with a 
touch of experience of constitutional government, 
they have again broken into their old ways of 
insurrection, and the island is again weltering in 
blood and in the throes of dreadful anarchy. 

It would seem that the only hope of permanent 
improvement must spring from the control of their 
governmental affairs by the strong hands of a 
civilized government. After years of control, \ 
such as is indicated, these people may emerge into / 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 89 

the light of a better day, but constitutionally they 
seem to be opposed to the trammels of civilized 
government; and it is a serious question whether 
after years of leadership and practical control 
by civilized effort they will ever bring them- 
selves to a condition where they will be able 
to carry into orderly fruition the principles of free 
government. 

While this government has no desire for con- 
quest, yet the great advance in the world move- 
ment and in the vital commercial affairs of the 
globe demands that the peace and safety of this 
hemisphere shall not be needlessly and wickedly 
broken, and that the peace, happiness, and safety 
of this nation and the commerce of the world 
within the bounds of our governmental life shall 
not be imperiled in the future. The tremendous 
impetus which, under the world movements of to- 
day, has been so potent and plain demands order 
in all the affairs and details of its life. The condi- 
tions of the times and the dependence of one part 
of the globe upon the other, brought about by 
the easy interchange between the nations, mean 
that no disorder in that great world commerce will 
be again lightly tolerated. 

Under the plainest and fairest interpretation of 
the Monroe Doctrine, that instrument reaches 



v 



90 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

easily the subject under discussion. Under its 
original application it will not allow a situation to 
obtain which will give foreign nations the oppor- 
tunity to interfere in the governmental life of 
countries of our hemisphere. Under the funda- 
mental meaning of the Monroe Doctrine, it will 
imperil the peace, safety, and happiness of this 
country if an island, lying at our doors, within 
touch of our daily life, athwart our greatest line of 
commerce, be allowed to continue its life of dis- 
order. 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 91 



X 

THE MENACE OF HAITI 

This discussion is not a mere moot question. 
The condition of the Republic of Haiti is fraught 
at this time with peril to the peace and safety of 
the United States, both as regards the original 
application of the Monroe Doctrine, as to actual 
interference with our hemisphere by foreign pow- 
ers, and also in its later application and exten- 
sion, by endangering the peace and safety of this 
country through its moral and governmental de- 
generation. 

All students of these affairs are familiar with 
the episode that brought about the destruction of 
the Crete-a-Pierrot by the German cruiser Pan- 
ther. Within a month the Republic of Haiti, 
reeking with blood, was in the throes of one of its 
almost continuous revolutions. Our government 
has time and again been compelled to intervene to 
save the lives of those engaged in Haiti's inter- 
necine wars. Repeatedly, by reason of its condi- 
tion, war has been almost precipitated between 



p} 



92 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

the Haitian government and the nations of Eu- 
rope. 

The government of Haiti is bankrupt, and its 
debt amounts to more than thirty-five millions of 
dollars. It has often defaulted in the payment of 
/ I its debts; and within the last few months the 
French government impounded the Haitian navy 
to compel the payment of the interest to the citi- 
zens of France. This was done again within a 
short time by the German government, and a Ger- 
man ship by force compelled the payment of 
money due the citizens of that government. The 
same action, in effect, was taken within the last 
month by the English government,- which com- 
pelled, under threats of war, the payment of 
money due the English bond-holders. 

We do not pretend to set down the long list of 
interferences by the armed forces of foreign na- 
tions in the affairs of Haiti, but we give as an il- 
lustration of the danger of this situation that 
which is to-day taking place in the immediate lines 
of our commerce, on, practically, the shore line 
of the government of the United States. 

It is now reported, with seemingly important 
proof, that the German government has lately 
sought control of Haiti in return for a loan of two 
millions of dollars, and that Germany was to re- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 93 

ceive important rights in its ports and have charge 
of the custom receipts, and that the contract was 
to include a coaling station at Mole Saint Nich- 
olas. The German government has denied this 
statement Yet, in its letter of denial it added 
this most significant and important statement: 
"The German government had joined with other 
European governments in representing to Wash- 
ington that the interests of European countries in 
Haiti are so large that no scheme of reorganiza- 
tion or control can be regarded as acceptable, un- 
less it is undertaken under international auspices." 

A large portion of the debt of the Haitian re- 
public is owing to German and French citizens. 
The demand of the German government, in effect, 
is that such control as is set out in its note would be 
the practical control of Haiti by Germany and 
France. It would be a tripartite agreement be- 
tween Germany, France, and the United States,' ^ 
with the two former countries acting together as ^1^" 
against our country. This proposition is to-day 
pending, and it looks to the control of this impor- 
tant and strategic island by foreign governments, 
one of which has important interest in securing a 
position in either the Gulf of Mexico or the Car- 
ibbean Sea. 

The statement of the German government is 



94 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

practically a warning, and it is the part of states- 
manship that this warning should be heeded. The 
condition of Haiti, which is in danger of bringing 
about this important interference with the Monroe 
Doctrine and with the peace and safety of this 
nation, should be terminated by a vigorous and 
firm exercise by this government of the principles 
of the Monroe Doctrine, and thus prevent the re- 
currence of a situation that may at any time bring 
about an infraction of the doctrine by European 
governments. 

This position of our country should breed no 
distrust among the self-respecting and stable na- 
tions on this hemisphere. We will go along with 
them, hand in hand, and, with their assistance, 
help the nations that are weak, and we will do 
what we can to place them on eternal foundations 
of freedom and order, so that they may become 
part and parcel of this great, free brotherhood on 
the western hemisphere. This does not mean, 
however, that under the Monroe Doctrine we are 
to allow any weak, degenerating, bankrupt, and 
emasculated country the continued right to bring 
about a situation that will involve this country in 
war, imperil our peace and safety, or hamper and 
interfere with our commerce. 

This is not an untoward extension of the Mon- 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 95 

roe Doctrine. By the progression of the world 
and change of the lines of commerce the Monroe 
Doctrine has been modified, not in its fundamen- 
tal principles, but the mode, manner, and time of 
its application must be different from what they &* 
were when it was originally enunciated. This 
government, under the Doctrine, cannot sit idly by 
and wait until the actual encroachment of foreign 
powers upon this hemisphere, an encroachment 
brought about by the condition of our so-called re- 
publics, shall take place. The Doctrine is a na- 
tional right that cannot be neglected, and it is a 
"national policy based upon a natural right, as in- 
alienable from nationality as life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness are inalienable from hu- 
manity." 

The demands of the civilized world sooner or 
later will compel the United States to interfere in 
the affairs of Haiti and in the governments of 
other countries similarly situated, in order to pre- 1^ 
vent further offense against the laws of civilization 
and decency. Civilization will not much longer 
tolerate plague spots in the midst of its work. It 
is unthinkable that a condition will be allowed to 
continue at our door, where great ships under 
our flag, filled with our citizens, will be at the 
mercy of bloody and half-civilized revolutionists, 



96 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

and where the laws of civilization governing com- 
merce and harbors, lighthouses and charting of 
channels are practically set at naught. 

Not much longer will it be tolerated within 
thirty hours of our greatest port, on a line with 
our most important commerce, that the idolatry 
of the snake and the control of the witch doctor 
should be supreme, that cannibalism should be 
charged and proven, that absolutism should exist 
in its worst form, and that, under the present sys- 
tem, the impoverishment and destruction of a 
great island — almost part of our shore line — 
should occur, and that its political, moral, and 
financial degeneracy should be brought about by 
the dreadful governmental and economical forces 
at work within its borders. 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 97 



XI 



THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE MONROE 
DOCTRINE 

A great writer speaks of the abrogation of the 
doctrine, and voices the distrust and suspicion 
among the nations of the southern hemisphere. 
In reply to this we present the pages of history; 
and we ask, Under what government, people, or 
system that has ever existed have there been pre- 
served, in their freedom and governmental life, so 
many weak nations as have existed on this hemis- 
phere, side by side with this powerful republic? 
He has cited as cause of distrust California and 
Mexico. These were life movements, absolutely 
instinctive in their being, movements that were 
demanded by the very existence of this nation. 

Distinguished writers so frequently discuss the 
jealousy of the South American nations toward the 
United States by reason of the Monroe Doctrine. 
One has gone so far as to give in detail the size 
and strength of South American dreadnoughts, 
and to dwell, with immense particularity, on the 



98 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

amount of beef and wheat raised and shipped by 
these nations. 

It is true that some jealousy does really exist. 
That cannot be avoided. The thinking statesmen 
of the South American countries, however, do not 
believe in the unjust aggression of the United 
States. Those of them who know the situation, 
and understand it, do not fear the Monroe Doc- 
trine nor its consequences. There are profes- 
sional politicians in South America who fan the 
embers of distrust for their own uprising and for 
their own purposes; but the great trend of senti- 
ment and thought on the part of the leaders in the 
great states of South America is not in this direc- 
tion. 

I quote the statement of j>enor Zabellos of Ar- 
gentina, as a fair indication of the thought of 
those of South America who know the real feeling 
of our country toward its southern neighbors : 

"What other countries of America have the same world 
problems as Panama and Mexico, the latter on the fron- 
tier of the United States, and the former the throat of 
the continent itself? They have nothing in common with 
the problems of the River Plata, or the shores of Brazil, 
or the coast of Chile. The Monroe Doctrine is necessary 
to-day to the United States. The Caribbean Sea washes 
the coast of the richest part of the United States, and it 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 99 

is necessary that it be dominated by them, in order to 
guarantee the independence and security of the United 
States. Under these circumstances, when there is constant 
danger of European intervention, as in the case of Vene- 
zuela, the United States said to the Powers, in accord- 
ance with the Monroe Doctrine: 'You can urge your 
claims in accordance with international procedure, but 
you cannot take territory, because if you do you will have 
to deal with the armed forces of the United States.' The 
Powers thereupon became less aggressive and the matter 
was settled by arbitration. This action of the United 
States emphasized once more the doctrine that no Euro- 
pean Power will be permitted to acquire territory on the 
continent of America." 

Thoughtful men do not agree with the conten- 
tion made in some directions that the Monroe 
Doctrine should be enforced under an agreement 
with South American states. It seems that this 
would be impracticable. The Monroe Doctrine 
is necessarily an emergency doctrine. While it is 
fundamental, tEe~3eman3 for its action is immedi- 
ate and decisive. It is a doctrine that demands 
absolute and direct action to make it effective. 
Very many serious questions arise as to the prac- 
ticability of the carrying out of any such agree- 
ment between the states of South America and 
the United States. 

In the first place, the interests of this govern- 



ioo THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

ment are greater than the interests of any other 
government on this hemisphere. What relative 
power would this government have as against the 
other contracting powers? The Monroe Doc- 
trine is a doctrine peculiarly applying to the 
United States. When this doctrine shall have 
been changed, so that it applies to other govern- 
ments, necessarily its very essence will be de- 
stroyed. 

Again, the history of international affairs goes 
to show that permanent agreements between na- 
tions diverse in thought, life, sentiment, situation, 
and race, have never been successful. Here would 
be an agreement for the enforcement of the doc- 
trine between the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin na- 
tions, nations totally diverse in temperament, and 
also between nations whose whole financial status 
and local situation are absolutely different froO 
those of the United States. 

Suppose, for instance, a question should arise 
between England and some of the South American 
states, and that the contracting powers for the 
maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine should be 
the United States, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. 
Those who know the situation in Argentina would 
not suppose for a moment that Argentina would 
oppose England in some controversy as to some 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 101 

minor state — a state that would be important to 
the United States, but relatively unimportant to 
Argentina. This illustration applies with equal 
force as to the other South American states. The 
money with which these great states are being de- 
veloped, and the population which is largely en- 
gaged in developing them, come from Europe, 
and Europe could injure these states financially if 
they opposed European interests in the enforce- 
ment of the Monroe Doctrine. 

This is merely one illustration of the multitude 
of troubles that would come of an agreement that 
the Monroe Doctrine should be enforced by a 
joint action of South American states and the 
United States. The questions are so absolutely 
diverse as between the United States and these 
countries that no unity of action could be brought 
about to make the enforcement of the doctrine ef- 
fective. While this is true, the Monroe Doctrine 
should not be enforced with the strong hand, but 
should be carried out in justice, in courtesy, and in 
fairness between our country and the countries of 
South America. This honesty and respect obtain 
among nations, just as they do among men, and by 
the immutable laws of cause and effect, and the 
action of this government upon a high plane will 



102 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

surely obtain and hold the respect of the countries 
of South America. 

"Whatever must be brought about between this pow- 
erful country, the United States, and the South American 
Republics will come of itself. Sympathy, loyal and hon- 
orable treatment, proximity, an intimacy as close as pos- 
sible between the men directing the destinies of these peo- 
ples, and especially reciprocal interests, will of themselves 
effect a political and an economic entente. There is need 
of no artificial measures, for they are ever fragile and 
often unproductive. The play of the natural laws of hu- 
man progress must be left free." — Dr. Marcial Mar- 
tinez, of Chile. 

The Monroe Doctrine, within its very nature, 
is a doctrine that is fundamental to the United 
States and peculiar to our government. While it 
should be carried out in justice, the mode, the time, 
the place, and the manner of its operation should 
be, and I believe will be, directed and controlled 
absolutely by the United States. To place it in 
other hands would be the destruction of the doc- 
trine, which has been vital to this country and to 
this hemisphere, and would cause the weakening 
of the hands of this government in the direction 
where international trade and governmental de- 
cency will demand that our hands should be strong 
and absolutely free to act decisively in the great 



IN ITS RELATION TO HAITI 103 

international emergencies that arise so unexpect- 
edly, emergencies that are fraught with such mo- 
mentous consequences. 

The doctrine of Monroe is a doctrine of help 
and peace. It is true that those who love our 
country believe that this republic "looks hopefully 
to the time when, by the voluntary departure of 
European governments from this continent and the 
adjacent islands, America shall be wholly Ameri- 
can." Still, these governments and their systems 
are here, they are a part of the life of this hemis- 
phere. They will surely demand that we preserve 
order and conserve the safety of the commerce 
within our sphere. This means absolute order. 
To bring about this order this government will 
not hurt the self-respect nor pride of any of the 
great and stable nations of our hemisphere. We 
will work with them along the lines of mutual 
respect and esteem. Touched by the new life, 
which is making them so vital and important a 
part of the world affairs of the day, they will 
understand that the conditions of other days can- 
not continue, and that the responsibilities brought 
about by present world conditions demand that 
our safety and peace, as well as theirs, compel the 
continued existence of the Monroe Doctrine in its 
full virility. When this is understood, there will 



io 4 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 

be no distrust. There will be the co-mingling of 
nations with the same governmental freedom. It 
will be a great brotherhood, the only one, a 
brotherhood of free peoples and free nations 
marching onward hand in hand to the consumma- 
tion of that blessed time when the strong will not 
oppose the weak, when order will walk with jus- 
tice, and when, filled with mutual esteem, confi- 
dence, and regard, and touched by the wondrous 
vitalizing life of freedom, the nations of this 
hemisphere, great and little, Latin and Anglo- 
Saxon will show to the world the splendor of 
freedom in its highest and best development. 



THE END 



INDEX 



Brazil, 83, 84, 85 

Caribbean Sea, 34 
Caribbean Sea and Gulf of 

Mexico : 
Their Future, 73 
Control of the Caribbean 

Sea, 37 
Cuba, 35 

Europe's Demand for En- 
largement, 79, 80 

Germany and Haiti, 91, 92, 

93, 97 
Haiti : 
Army, 54, 55 
Description, 26 
Governmental Condition, 

45, 46, 47, 48, 49, SO, 52, 53 
Governmental Policy and 

Religious Ideals, 40 
History, 41, 42, 43, 44 
Importance to United 

States, 28, 29, 30 
Location, 24, 25 
Presidents, 59 
Religion, 62 
Strategic Importance, 31, 

32, 33 



Holy Alliance, 13 

Lodge Resolution, 18 

Magdalena Bay, 84 
Monroe Doctrine, 15 
Conditions of Enforcement 

by United States, 101 
Effect of Abrogation, 82 
Function of the Doctrine, 

19, 20, 21, 22 
Its Application to Haiti, 87 
Its Necessity to the United 

States, 86 
Its Objects, 75, 76, 78 
Should Be Enforced by 

United States Alone, 100 

Panama Canal, 38 
Port-au-Prince, 70 

Santo Domingo, 43 
Sefior Zabellos on Monroe 
Doctrine, 98 

Venezuela, 83 

Voudou, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69 

Washington's Farewell Ad- 
dress, 12, 13 









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